


Freedom from the Sea

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Murder, Past Suicide, Rusalka, The Guy Who Gets Murdered Deserves It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-29 18:32:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13932825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: For ten years, Nikolai had suffered.  For ten years, Nikolai had cried himself to sleep, cursing himself for not being able to work faster, or to stop his daughter from drowning, or to stop his grandson from making the bad deal he’d made to save her.Tonight would be the last night.  Tonight, Nikolai would save his grandson.





	Freedom from the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DiamondWinters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiamondWinters/gifts).



> Written for DiamondWinters's [challenge.](https://d2diamond.tumblr.com/post/171061464251/welcome-to-the-yuri-plisetsky-writing-prompt) My character was Nikolai Plisetsky.
> 
> The prompt:  
> Yuri has been cursed to be seafoam for as long as he remembers. Forever crashing up on the shore to touch the land that he once ran and laughed along. For hundreds of years, he has done nothing but wish he could return home. Angry at the one who cursed him, angry at himself for allowing it to happen, angry at those who never came to rescue him.
> 
> During a full moon, when the light of the moon goddess shines down upon the sleeping world, Yuri is able to take his human shape, and sit upon the rocks on the shore. Still made of foam and seawater, he glows ethereally in the moonlight.
> 
> It is on such a night when he is discovered …
> 
> I've made some changes - he's only been there for ten years, not hundreds, and he's not angry at the one who hasn't rescued him yet because he knows he's trying.

The full moon hung low in the sky, so low it was still pinkened by the sun’s refracted light. Nikolai watched the shore carefully, not wanting to miss a second of this chance. Once a month, under the full moon, Nikolai could see his grandson again.

The waves swept in and each time, Nikolai held his breath, until finally a shape started to form. It always took a few waves before enough seafoam had accumulated on the shore for Yuri to return to human form, and as Yuri grew, the process took longer. Yuri had been a small boy when he’d been cursed. Now, he was a young man, although still somewhat small compared to what he would eventually become.

At the first breath, Nikolai ran to Yuri, holding out the towel. Yuri took it and wrapped it around himself as he shivered. “Hi, Grandpa. Good to see you.”

“Yurotchka.” Nikolai hugged Yuri tight. “Call the rusalka.”

Yuri groaned. “Do I have to, Grandpa? She won’t let me go and you know it.”

“No, I do not. I’ve found it, Yurotchka. I’ve found the key to your freedom.” Nikolai pulled back and pointed to a large bag he’d brought. “Do as I say, Yura. Call her. The worst that happens is that she refuses to honor her deal.”

“She could kill you, Grandpa! And then I’d be all alone on these nights, knowing that you died for me.” Yuri’s head dropped, and the long golden hair blocked Nikolai’s view, but he didn’t need to see his grandson’s face to know that it was streaked with tears. “I can’t lose you, Grandpa.”

“She can’t kill me, Yurotchka. I’m not in the sea, and I won’t go. Summon her.”

Yuri swallowed hard, but he nodded and turned to face the sea. He walked a few steps out, and then crouched to put his lips underwater. Nikolai couldn’t hear what was said, and he didn’t dare summon the rusalka himself anyway. If he so much as touched the water, he would be in her power.

Yuri backed out of the sea as quickly as he could, making a beeline for Nikolai. They both stood well back from the farthest waves, until the red-haired woman appeared. “Yuri? Ah, Nikolai. So good to see you again. Perhaps this time I can have that hug I keep asking for?” She held out her arms to Nikolai.

He lifted the bag and walked as close to the rusalka as he dared. “I bring you a gift, in exchange for my son’s freedom, as you promised.”

The rusalka raised an eyebrow. “Bring it out here, then.”

Yuri tried to lift the bag. When he couldn’t, he walked out, dragging it behind him. The rusalka sighed in disappointment, causing Yuri to scowl at her. “You’re not taking Grandpa, hag. I won’t let you.”

“Can’t blame a girl for trying!” The rusalka took the bag and opened it.

~~~TEN YEARS EARLIER~~~

Yuri wouldn’t stop crying, and Nikolai couldn’t blame him. He wanted to cry, too, but he’d been brought up to believe that tears were a sign of weakness, that they made him less a man. Yuri was only five, so even if Irina had planned on teaching him not to cry, she hadn’t made much progress yet. It was better for him, Nikolai was sure.

Now she would never get that chance. He’d held himself together when the sailor who witnessed it came to tell him of Irina’s drowning. With Yuri’s father long since gone, Nikolai would have to raise his grandson. He had no idea how to help Yuri right now, but letting him cry seemed like a good start.

After a dinner that neither Plisetsky ate much of, Nikolai sent Yuri to bed and stayed up to finally let himself cry for his daughter. He completely missed it when little Yurotchka crept out of the house.

The next morning, when he couldn’t find Yuri, he panicked. He made his way to the sea, where the rusalka had come to him straight away. “Nikolai Plisetsky?”

“Yes, that’s me, have you seen a small boy with blond hair and green eyes?”

“You mean half the boys in Russia?” The rusalka laughed. “Yes, Nikolai Plisetsky, I have seen your Yuri. You can see him now, if you wish.” She gestured out to the sea. “He came to me to make a deal. Like a fool, he believed I would keep my word. I couldn’t even if I wanted to, but he didn’t know that.”

Nikolai’s blood froze. “What have you done to my grandson?”

“He did it to himself. He walked out into the sea, and became foam.” Nikolai fell to his knees. “My power is strongest during the new and full moons, with the tides. Pick one, and every month, you can see your grandson on that night, as long as the sun is gone.”

“Full moon. During the full moon.”

The first full moon after Yuri’s deal, he ran into Nikolai’s arms, sobbing. “I’m sorry, Grandpa! She s-said… she said she could give Mama back. Without me around, Mama could find a husband, you and she would be better off.”

“Yuri, listen to me. I love you very much, and as sad as I was when your mama died, my best comfort was knowing that you were safe. I would never have traded you to have her back.”

Yuri sobbed harder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Since then, Nikolai spent every moment he could learning about rusalki, finding weaknesses or things that he could exploit. He learned about this specific rusalka, a young woman who had jumped from a ship she was on after discovering that she was pregnant by a man who had abandoned her. Eventually, he came up with a plan. The more he learned about the man who had abandoned the rusalka, the less guilty he felt about it, too. The man was a scoundrel, a thief, a murderer… and Yuri’s father.

~~~NOW~~~

The rusalka opened the bag and shrieked. Inside was an unconscious man she recognized, despite the twelve years since he’d impregnated and abandoned her. “As promised, I gave you Lev. You can free yourself from this hell. Now free my grandson.”

The rusalka smiled sadly. “I wish I could, Nikolai. You’ve done so well. But I can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” Nikolai said. “When you’re freed, your enchantment on Yuri will end. I can take him home with me tonight.”

“In that case, goodbye, Nikolai. Goodbye, Yuri.” The rusalka opened the bag enough to pull Lev out and dropped him into the sea, which woke him up. His eyes went very wide with fear as the rusalka picked him up and kissed him. She turned and ran into the sea, taking Lev with her.

Nikolai watched Yuri closely as they waited together. He began to shake after a few minutes, and then went very still, unconscious on the beach. For a heartstopping moment, Nikolai feared that the only freedom Yuri had found was the freedom of death, but then Yuri opened his eyes. “Grandpa!” He tackled Nikolai – so much stronger than the boy who had gone to the sea. “I’m free. I can feel it. Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Lev is borrowed from my Soulmate Dreams series. Writing this was quite cathartic, as he's just as big a douche in that fic, too.


End file.
